Many aquatic applications require monitoring of levels of certain chemicals within the water. Alternatively, chemical characteristics of the water associated with certain chemicals may require monitoring (e.g., pH levels, alkalinity, etc.). In some instances, chemicals may be automatically added to the water with an automated chemical delivery system, in part, in response to detected chemical levels or water chemical characteristics determined as part of the monitoring process. For example, in a pool or spa setting, an amount of chlorine may be monitored and additional chlorine may be added if the detected level is too low.
In some applications, chemicals are added to an aquatic application manually. In other applications, chemicals are automatically added to the body of water via one or more pumps or similar devices. The pumps may be integrated with, or controlled by, a separate chemical controller. Though suitable for many applications, known chemical controllers may not meet the needs of all users, application settings, or configurations. For example, in some situations, a chemical controller may malfunction and inadvertently continuously run, thereby creating a non-ideal water characteristic situation.
Certain chemical controllers or aquatic application systems may include fail-safe mechanisms to prevent such situations from occurring. For example, a system may sense the characteristics of the water and attempt to correct non-ideal characteristics or create a fault to cease operation of the chemical controller via mechanical means and/or through system logic if such corrective measures are not effective. However, no known system addresses this particular issue at its root cause of improperly functioning relays and related circuitry. By addressing the issue at the root cause, non-ideal water characteristic situations can be avoided or more quickly addressed. With an automated chemical delivery system, it may be desirable to include additional failsafe mechanisms as part of the chemical controller.